Coconut Dulce de Leche Brownies

Coconut Dulce de Leche Brownies, people! Lightly salted coconut and dulce de leche are mixed and dropped by the spoonful into a rich triple chocolate brownie batter! These dulce de leche brownies are a luscious play on texture and maximum gooeyness!

This morning I came across a video on Facebook which has caused a lot of controversy. I won’t get into the content of the video. Let’s just say, it caused a lot of outrage from a certain group of people over a certain president of the US of A. I tend to drill through the comments when I come across such videos. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s my own personal study on the decline of humanity.

While reading through the comments I found one particularly disturbing. A woman was spewing some super racist shit, freely using the “N” word. Curious, I clicked on her profile. I was expecting your run of the mill racist. I was shocked to learn she was Asian. I read through her posts for at least 10 minutes and each one was more racist than the last, except for the ones where she spoke lovingly of her son. The juxtaposition was jarring to say the least.

Racist comments against Muslims, Mexicans, African Americans (calling them monkeys), and “Libtards” which aren’t even a race. She cited articles from sources which spread misinformation like a wind-spread forest fire. These articles seemed to fuel her racist rhetoric, which was liberally peppered with CAPS and exclamation points.

It was disturbing. More so because she is a minority. Like Latinos, like African Americans, like pretty much everyone brown. She is a monitory in this country.

Then I got to thinking about my own people, how my fellow Latinos tend to dehumanize those with darker skin. They don’t need to be African American. Anyone with darker skin is a target and they tend to be superficial in nature.

As a dark skin, “pelo malo” Dominican, I was considered ugly next to my lighter skinned cousins. My hair wasn’t straight, I was the darkest of the three, and my features told the world I was Negra. And Negra wasn’t beautiful. It was ‘less than’. As a child it was painful to see my mom’s or aunt’s friends fawn over my cousin’s whiteness. They’d give me a cursory glance, trying to find something they thought “pretty” and would end up making some insensitive comment about my hair, or my looks. Because I was dark. Because my hair was coarse. Because I didn’t fit THEIR parameters of beauty, the same parameters that had been passed down by generations.

These parameters, sadly, shape your own thinking. As children we gravitated towards the lighter skinned children. We aspire to look like the blonde haired Latina because society, our parents, neighbors, friends, TV, tell us to deny our melanin and covet a certain level of whiteness.

When we begin to date many in our culture are prohibited from bringing home a date who’s too dark. African Americans are out of the question. The phrase “Negra yo, y el caldero de mi casa” (The darkest thing in my home is me and my pot) is a phrase uttered by more of my people that I care to count.

We are encouraged to marry “Light” or marry “White”. We are told, yes told, to breed the black out. We are urged to commit cultural genocide by way of breeding.

I was saddened by this lady’s comments. But I’m even more saddened this still happens in our own Latino culture. Many are guilty of this. I’m saddened that in 2017, our melanin or course textured hair does not make us feel empowered. I’m saddened to see that in 2017 people STILL attack those whose melanin is richer or hair is much more textured.

We have to do better, people. We ask for inclusion, yet we do not practice what we preach.

Now flow with me. Let’s talk about these Gooey Coconut Dulce de Leche Brownies. They’re deliciously brown. Like me. Triple chocolate – Melted, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips. Maximum chocolate here. These brownies are filled with a sweetened flaked coconut mixed with dulce de leche. Dulce de leche coconut is dolloped over that chocolate brownie batter. More batter is poured over coconut and baked. The batter is left underbaked and gooey. So. Gooey, people. So… Damn… Gooey.

A day later…. Still gooey.

Two days later, moist as fuck.

This, my people. This is a brownie. Dark chocolate with coconut is now my favorite combination.

Instructions

In a medium bowl, combine coconut, dulce de leche, salt, and vanilla bean paste. Mix until combined. Fold in the all-purpose flour. Set aside until ready to use.

Bake the brownies:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray an 8x8 square pan with cooking spray and line the pan with parchment paper leaving a slight overhang.

To a medium bowl add flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Whisk to combine and set aside.

In a large bowl set over a small saucepan half filled with simmering water, add the chocolate and butter. Stirring occasionally, allow the butter and chocolate to melt completely. Turn off the heat and remove the bowl from the pot of simmering water. Add the granulated and brown sugars and whisk to completely combine. Set aside and allow the mixture to come to room temperature.

Add 3 eggs to the chocolate/sugar mixture and whisk until the eggs are combined. Add the remaining eggs (2) and whisk until combined. Stir in the vanilla, but be sure NOT to over whisk at this stage. Otherwise this will change the texture of your brownie.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture and with a rubber spatula, fold until somewhat combined, but you can still see large bits of flour. Add the chocolate chips* and fold until mostly combined. You should still see small bits of four remain in the batter.

Pour about 3/4 of the brownie batter into the pan and add the coconut/dulce de leche filling by the spoonful. It doesn’t have to be uniform, just dollop that situation. Pour the remaining batter over the coconut filling and smooth with an offset spatula. It's totally cool if you see coconut. In fact, I would prefer it.

Place in the oven and bake for 43-45 minutes, rotating the pan midway through baking. What you’re looking for is the edges to be set, yet the middle to jiggle a bit when the pan is moved. Don’t worry, this will set.

Remove from the oven and allow the brownies to cool for at least 4-5 hours before cutting. Lift from the pan, cut into squares (large or small) and serve. Note – The brownies will be very gooey. And you’re going to dig that. Serve alone or top that situation with some ice cream.

Store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.

Makes 9 large gooey brownies, 18 smaller brownies

Recipe Notes

Note: Mostly for photo purposes I folded half the chocolate chips into the batter and sprinkled half on top of the batter. I won't tell you how to live, but you know... If you're into it, you can do it this way or you can follow the recipe instructions above.

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That is so sad and sickening that that woman was spewing that hate and that you grew up with that sort of attitude. You are beautiful. Ironically, I always wanted to be darker, didn’t feel beautiful unless I was tanned and people were mistaking me for Puerto Rican–we all need to embrace the beauty in who we are as we are because there is beauty no matter the shade of skin. As if melanin levels really matter. *sigh* Thank you for sharing all of this. And thank you for the delicious brownies-they’re gorgeous and look amazing

thechimes

My cousins grew up in Louisiana and I remember being shocked when they said that racism is rampant within black culture there. Exactly what you said: lighter-skinned folks showing racist attitudes towards those with darker skin. This is mind boggling.